I'm laying out my content promotion strategies, tools,& practices that grow your site traffic.
This tweet had my brain churning for DAYS! But my immediate response was to @Kaleigh with the comment "I do this". Kaleigh slid into my DM's and a conversation about my content promotion strategies and process began. This had me thinking...
If Kaleigh Moore, a freelance writing teacher with more than 19,000 followers on Twitter and articles in Forbes and Vogue Business, is curious about content promotion services and how they work, it's likely that others are too.
Thing is... there aren't a ton of content promotion services available- companies that actually engage in targeted communities and social listening to position your content.
Even more challenging, there are a lot of content marketing agencies that promote content, but only so far as posting it or boosting it on social media, maybe adding it to a content aggregator, or getting you a few guest posts.
This leaves you to boost your own posts more thoroughly, but...
Most people aren't promoting their content. Those that want to don't know how to go about it. Those that know how to go about it aren't willing to put in the time.
(p.s... content promotion takes a lot of time, that's why most content marketing services don't do it.)
Plenty of people are curious about the topic, though- evidenced in posts like this on quora:
And these results from a simple google search, which shows that people are searching for strategies and answers to how to promote content.
I believe part of what holds people back is the heavy reliance on SEO and the belief that good content can promote itself.
Sorry, but it can't.
I know, it's sad. Trust me, I'm pretty choked up about it. But it's a fact nonetheless.
Because content can't (always) reach its audience on its own, it needs a little boost. If you aren't doing it yet, this post isn't to convince you why you should. Instead, this post is for those that KNOW that content promotion is important but don't know how to go about it, or don't want to spend forever doing it.
In this post, I'll answer these pertinent questions (you can click on the links to take you to each section if you'd like to skip ahead):
Why is content promotion important?
How can I gain more traffic from content promotion?
How do you promote content? (All the best content promotion strategies)
What are the best content promotion tools to use?
How do I create a content promotion strategy?
How do I analyze my content promotion efforts?
Why is content promotion important?
It may seem a little elementary because you likely already understand the importance of content promotion. After all, you came here for answers on how to promote content, organically, with paid ads, social media, or otherwise.
But this is a question that a lot of people are asking right now, and I feel that a lot of the answers given in this quora thread and across the internet, just don't cover it.
There is, however, one statement that rings true, from a comment by Myra Dua:
If you want to build an online presence of your website, producing quality content is just not enough.
Let's start with that.
A LOT of content marketers and marketing experts will make the case that quality content should be your priority, and that it will be enough to attract readers. I can agree with the first part of that. The second... not so much.
The internet is flooded with millions of new articles EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!
Seriously, "almost 2.75 million posts are published each day on WordPress alone"
Can you imagine trying to beat them all for the first page in a google search?
Now, now, I know they're not focusing on the same topic, but you're still facing a lot. For instance, take the term "content promotion" and use the image below for reference.
These are the top pages for the term "content promotion". They're all exceptionally well-known brands in the marketing space. Their traffic (the first column) is at least over 200 visitors per month.
Their DA (Domain Rating- in the second column) is well over 80, and that last column highlights how many backlinks they have to their article- yes, that's a lot.
Beating those mavericks for the first page of a Google search is a challenge, especially for a "lame" term (I call it that, anyway) like content promotion.
The term itself only has a search volume of around 100/month, and yet the keyword difficulty (KD) is 41 (I advise searching for terms with KD no higher than 25, especially if you are a new blog or one with low DR).
Okay, so this might already sound difficult or too complex for such a simple question. Let me break it down:
Other blogs, especially big brands in your niche, don't have to work as hard as you do to get on the first page of a search. They have their brand name, reputation, and domain authority.
You're also competing for the slot after those top pages, along with the hundreds of others writing for the same topic.
To overcome this issue, you have a few options:
- Use high intent keywords, that consider the intent of the buyer. If we continue with the content promotion example, this would mean writing an article about the best resources for a content promotion strategy, if you design strategies for companies or provide templates, etc. Or, the best content promotion tools, if you are a company that sells those tools or provides this kind of service. You'll get lower traffic, but likely more leads.
- Create a content promotion plan.
How can you gain more traffic from content promotion?
This one really gets me, because a lot of content marketing specialists and the companies they work for don't know how to answer this question. On Quora, the four answers I found can be boiled down to the same drivel as usual:
Social media.
Email your subscribers.
Paid ads.
I get it, these are popular methods for boosting your site traffic, but it matters a great deal in HOW you do each of those things. In addition, there are better ways.
Before we get into that, let's answer- how exactly do you get more traffic when you promote content?
Okay, so, there's this old adage that if you write great content and use keywords, your content will promote itself. Right, we covered this. We know there are just too many blogs out there right now to get easily noticed.
I just want to show proof of this- using my blog.
My site is young, and my blog (the one you're reading now) is even younger. Let's take a look at my post traffic with just keyword optimization, publication to my site, and a post on social media:
You see the low peaks from October through November? Those were my posts without promotion. That sudden jump in traffic is from a single post. The post right before this one, to be exact- B2B Content Ideas to Reach Your Target Audience (& How to Know Who That Is).
You also see that my general traffic, though it has fallen since that post peak, has remained higher than the two months prior.
As for a client that I have done content promotion for, we can take a look at a few stats.
From just two weeks of promoting articles on Reddit, it was bringing in as much referral traffic as Facebook and Linkedin (channels we'd also ramped up engagement on).
This is just an overview of a short period of their traffic, not reflective of their overall engagement.
Medium also brought in a fair amount of traffic, as did Quora, from really just ONE post.
Let's focus on that last number though, for traffic brought in through Quora. That 3 represents the number of sign-ups earned through the channel. 3, out of just 44 impressions. That's on par with the sign-ups converted from Reddit, with 104 site visits. BOTH are higher than the social media channels bringing in traffic.
This is because Reddit and Quora allow you to target your audience a little more thoroughly.
The numbers above are relatively small, for now. But the attention on promotion has been low, and we're starting from scratch. In other words...
I'm just getting started, baby! *rubbing hands together like I'm about to deadlift a tractor tire*
Now, content marketing is the long game. It always has been. But there are methods to growing even faster. I've used them for my clients (who usually already have a blog and have had one for years but were still not seeing the growth and traffic they should have), and now I'm using them for this new site.
Keep watching, because I'm using this site as a live case study, sorta.
The best content promotion strategies: How do you promote content?
This is the section that probably attracted you to this blog in the first place. It will cover everything from the basic promotion techniques like promoting articles on social media through paid promotion techniques.
It's a massive collection. Hence why this is an "ultimate guide", right? So let's dive into it.
Social media content promotion- get others involved.
Obviously, promoting articles on social media channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are extremely common. This is because they're huge drivers of traffic.
In these early days of growing my site and site blog, I've been focusing a lot on LinkedIn, since I work largely with B2Bs. Clearly, that tactic works, because it's the second-largest driver of my traffic at the moment (according to my Wix dashboard).
Lesser used channels include Pinterest and Instagram can also be huge drivers of traffic with even limited attention.
*P.s... If you are posting on social media, make sure to:
Use hashtags
Ask for shares
Pin your latest article to appear at the top of your Twitter feed
Use Twitter cards
Use Twitter chats
So, most content marketing agencies are going to share your content on social media. Or, they may leave it up to you to distribute.
*This, of course, greatly depends on your budget and the type of content service you hire.
Regardless, it's very likely that whatever content service you hire isn't going to provide continuous engagement on social media.
I'm not talking about on your Facebook or LinkedIn page. I'm not talking about creating a social media calendar for you or social media management (which is, again, just posting on your own pages).
What I mean is real, consistent engagement with communities that your target audience engages in. This leads me to my next strategy.
Engage in the communities your target audience hangs out in
Take a look at the communities I engage with on Facebook:
AND
AND... the list goes on. Yeah, it can be a full-time job. If you see job postings for "community manager", that's exactly what I'm talking about here.
Right now, it drives traffic to my articles, and that traffic is far more targeted and has a greater range than my Facebook page does now. In fact, right after posting one of my case studies in a Facebook group, I received this message:
That's just from engaging in Facebook groups. You shouldn't stop there. There are TONS of other communities to engage in:
Reddit is a great avenue for engagement because it segments conversations into actual communities. There, you can engage with other professionals in your niche that may be interested in sharing your content. There are also several communities in which potential customers/ readers ask questions about specific topics.
Because of this, it's also a great resource for curating content ideas.
Quora
I engage on Quora every single day, and it's been a great source of traffic for my site. In fact, if you look at the graphic I'd posted earlier, that shows LinkedIn as my second largest source of traffic, you'll notice that "direct" is my largest.
Every time I answer a question on Quora, I add my credential of Content Director for The Write Destination. While I can't completely state that all the "direct" traffic is coming from these interactions on Quora, it's highly likely due to the ability to reach my site through links on my other channels.
I also receive direct traffic to articles when I post links in the comments, which currently makes up 8% of my article traffic.
**There is an issue with businesses posting content on Quora and Reddit. The platforms kick businesses and even some individuals off for self-promotion. Such was the case for my client Memory AI as well as for Kaleigh Moore. Hence, why it's best if you have an individual within your company, or within the content marketing service you hire, to post content for you. Even they have to walk the line carefully. NEVER copy and paste blog post content into a Quora answer. It will definitely get you kicked out.**
Forums
There are thousands of forums out there- many of them tailored to niches. That's what makes them such great places to interact. As pointed out earlier, readers coming from sites like Quora and Reddit are more likely to convert because they're more targeted.
They're in those groups/ conversations/ communities because they are either in the industry or have an interest, which already makes them a more qualified reader.
if you target the right groups, you're more likely to get conversions. To find niche forums, simply type this combination into your search engine:
"intitle:forum" + [your niche keyword]